The CupCake Cartel

October 04, 2018

This year Camino partnered with The Cupcake Cartel – a group of 165 handpicked athletes from all walks of life who share a love for triathlon. The group is headed by Callum Millward and Alise Selsmark and was formed as an extension of Cal’s “Cupcakes with Cal” brand. They set out to bring together a group of likeminded, fun, inspiring and downright funny personalities triathletes to remove the seriousness from the sport of triathlon providing a platform where people can be themselves, transcend social, demographic and geographical barriers. The group has one mission: to showcase the fun side of what can sometimes be seen as a ‘Serious Sam’ sport.

The aim of the Cartel is to provide a group for triathletes who can support and share experiences together. Cal and Alise pride themselves on the close-knit network that connects people across the world. Alise says, “We host social catch ups at key events throughout the year and provide ongoing support and interaction for our athletes via our online private forum. We also offer a personalised coaching service for a limited number of our athletes. We are lucky enough to be working with some fantastic team partners and sponsors who have jumped on board to provide our athletes with some amazing benefits throughout the year.” (A full list of team benefits and team features can be found on the website). With 9 professional athletes on the team, the social gap the exists between professional and amateur athletes is closed as they share and connect with age group athletes in the sport.

The Cartel run off core values some of these include:

AUTHENTIC

The Cupcake Cartel want to bring the sport back to it’s basics, they want to remember that everyone in Triathlon participate for the love of the sport and the unique people in it. In a sport where they believe some people take things way to seriously they value authentic individuals from all walks of life (apparently bakers are also highly valued).

CONNECTED

The Cartel wants to be a platform were people can share their triathlon journeys and adventures with each other. At its core level it is about bringing people together and building a network where everyone is lifted to be their best and knowledge is shared to help each other improve. At training and races the Cartel meets up to share the highs and lows of race days and the post-race celebrations.

FEMALE PARTICIPATION

The Cartel wants to see girls out on the course kicking butt. They want to encourage more women into the sport. Professional athlete Alise spear heads this value by ensuring that all the ladies in the group are nurtured and looked after to achieve their best results.

The Cartel has taken off in leaps and bounds in its first year boasting 13 team members qualifying to race in the Ironman World Championships, 11 team members selected to race at the Ironman 70.3 Championships on South Africa and 6 team members picked to race at the ITU Age Group World Championships.

If your keen to get involved in the Cartel the 2019 team applications will be opening on the 24th of October unitill the 7th of November. You can find out more on the website below.